An international celebration of dark matter

11/06/17

By Kathryn Jepsen

Around the world, scientists and non-scientists alike celebrated the first international Dark Matter Day.

This year, October 31 was more than just Halloween. It was also the first global celebration of Dark Matter Day. In 25 countries, 11 US states and online, people interacted with scientists, watched demonstrations, viewed films, took in art exhibits and toured laboratories to learn about the ongoing search for dark matter.

At Strasbourg planetarium in France, visitors watched the program “Phantom of the Universe.”

Nicolas Busser, CNRS/IPHC

Actress Tilda Swinton narrated the planetarium show, which audiences around the world viewed at different Dark Matter Day events.

Nicolas Busser, CNRS/IPHC

In a talk after the planetarium show in Strasbourg, visitors were jokingly warned never to challenge a theorist.

Nicolas Busser, CNRS/IPHC

Speaker Pierre Van Hove, a physicist based at Institut Pluridisiplinaire Hubert Curien (IPHC), discusses the search for dark matter at the Large Hadron Collider after the show in Strasbourg.

Nicolas Busser, CNRS/IPHC

Visitors approach Van Hove, who is on the CMS experiment at the LHC, after the talk.

Nicolas Busser, CNRS/IPHC

Peter Sorensen of Berkeley Lab gave a talk at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco on October 31.

Berkeley Lab

Employees at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory celebrated Dark Matter Day with Facebook Live broadcasts related to two upcoming projects that will study dark matter, the LZ experiment at the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Bart Bernhardt, co-founder of Nerd Nite SF, donned a Dark Matter Day t-shirt during an October 18 event in San Francisco.

Nerd Nite SF

Obi-Wan Kenobi was spotted in a Dark Matter Day t-shirt in the Berkeley Lab Strategic Communications office.

Berkeley Lab

School children made their own dark matter particles during a workshop at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK.

STFC

The auditorium was packed for a special “Talking Science” public lecture at STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory.

The interest of the public in Karlsruhe, Germany, was so great that the NTI lecture hall on Campus South was filled to the last seat and no standing room was available.

KIT

Two Karlsruhe Institute of Technology researchers summarized scientists’ current understanding of dark matter and talked about new experiments seeking to uncover its mystery.

KIT

The German laboratory DESY turned into an art gallery for Dark Matter Day.

Helge Mundt, DESY

Fifteen artists took part, showing works they created after an intense period of exchange with DESY scientists.

Helge Mundt, DESY

The artwork at DESY included a sound installation in the HERA accelerator tunnel.

Helge Mundt, DESY

The dark matter artwork at DESY was displayed in test halls, accelerator shafts and office corridors.

Helge Mundt, DESY

On Dark Matter Day, the other works were topped off with a program of short films called “Dark Matters” and a live link to the CMS experiment at CERN.

Helge Mundt, DESY

The Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Jiao Tong University organized an event in Shanghai.

IHEP

Visitors lined up outside the Dark Matter Day event in Shanghai.

IHEP

The event in Shanghai began with public lectures followed by free discussion between the public and the scientists.

IHEP

Attendees at the Shanghai event also watched “Phantom of the Universe.”

IHEP

Dark Matter Day at CERN included a dark matter cake.

CERN

Katharine Leney, a researcher on the ATLAS experiment at CERN, introduced the evening by presenting the basic principles of dark matter using her bespoke dark matter cake. Later in the evening Wessel Valkenburg, a research fellow in the Theory Department at CERN, explained the how and why research is carried out on dark matter.

CERN

More than 270 attendees onsite as well as on the live webcast learned from CERN experts about the experiments and theories that seek to provide us with a deeper understanding of this strange and unknown matter.

CERN

On Tuesday, October 31, CERN joined the global celebration of Dark Matter Day from the Globe of Science and Innovation

CERN

With Dark Matter Day falling on Halloween, some creative participants came dressed up in costumes related to dark matter

CERN

A volunteer demonstrated electrical repulsion at a Dark Matter Day event at Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

Leo Bellantoni, Fermilab

A jar of jellybeans at the Adler Planetarium event represented the make-up of the universe, mostly dark energy and dark matter.

Leo Bellantoni, Fermilab

Visitors and volunteers talked particle accelerators at the Dark Matter Day event at Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

Leo Bellantoni, Fermilab

When asked, “What’s the most interesting thing about dark matter that you wish people knew more about?” Lindsay Forestell, TRIUMF PhD scientist, replied: “You could name me every element in the periodic table, show me how all of the proteins and molecules and proteins in your body work, or build me a rocket ship and fly me to the moon. At most you would still only understand less than 5 percent of what’s out there in the Universe.”

TRIUMF

On October 24, Brookhaven Lab took three dark matter experts to a local bar for some lively conversation over food and drink.

For Dark Matter Day at Sanford Lab, James Haiston Jr. (aka Quailman) and Jack Genovesi (aka Jack-in-the-Box) of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology donned Halloween costumes to reprise a recent Comic Con panel on dark matter and its role in popular culture.

Matt Kapust, Sanford Lab

“Everything we know about the universe—regular matter and energy—accounts for a fraction of the universe,” said Michael Dowding (aka Mr. Incredible) of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology at Sanford Lab's Dark Matter Day event.